This picture, above is Mike at the KEEP OUT BUILDING with the colony of honey bees he captured and moved to their new location in his yard. 3 feet a day, for several days, Mike moved this precious gathering of busy bees. Notice the lack of a protective suit. The trust level in which he worked with these little beings, blows my mind! At least he’s wearing gloves this time!
Yep, the above picture is Mike in his beekeeping suit, no gloves, with a colony of honey bees he attained by shaking a tree, located on the property where he lived in Independence, Oregon. These gentle creatures we’re finishing their trek with their new queen into a hive built by Mike. “The bees have no intention of stinging you once their Queen is in the box. They follow her attentively,” Mike shared me.
Quite honestly, it’s not the factual information you will find in this blog, you can find it anywhere online. This blog series is about the passion that oozes from a man who went from not knowing a single thing about raising bees to a man whose deep knowledge not only became an expert bee’keeper’ but he became a bee protector and friend.
Mike understand the bees mind. The bees success, devotion, perseverance, quiet determination, loyalty, respect, nurturing, quiet, melodic co-existence, tranquil business, survival instincts n some ways is representational of a life much like his own. One could use one, or all of these words to describe Mike accurately. He too, is a deeply wise and quietly driven, very successful man in his own right relying on no one to become the man he is today.
We live in Oregon and in Oregon we have 4 types of Honey Bees: Italian, Carniolan and Buckfast. Mike raised the sweet natured Italian Honey Bees. This is the variety we will be raising this spring. Not only are they gentle but they are excellent honey producers. Since we want to share our honey, (not sell,) the productivity of the bee is important. In this next section, we will walk you through a single bee’s importance in their life span of a mere 6 weeks in length. Here is where Mike’s unique view of a bee shines through.
Technically, there are 6 stages of a bees life cycle. The first on being the egg laid by the queen. The next 2 stages are in the forming of the larva. There are also two stages to the Pupa which is what the larva becomes. The last stage of life for a bee is Adulthood before death. Mike sees these stages differently. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more whole and beautiful description when asking about the life cycle of an insect.
Asking Mike about the life cycle of a honey bee, his response was this, “To know the true life cycle of a honey bee, one must first understand that a hive is full of bees that are in new cycles of their individual lives.” You would think one would assume that but this woman, who graduated college on the Dean’s List, thought “Say What!” Inwardly I felt foolish for thinking this wasn’t the case! Instead, I responded with “If you wouldn’t mind, using your own words, walk me through a honey bees life.”
“First of all, it’s a case not unlike the chicken’s ‘what came first. In this case, one never knows if it was the egg or the bee I guess. The confusion is, the Queen comes from an egg that is specifically transformed into a Queen egg.” I said, “So what you are telling me is that there is never an egg that is laid which is predesignated to be a Queen Bee?” “Yeah, that is exactly right. All eggs laid by the queen are for the survival of the hive only. There is only one queen in each hive and she was never a specific egg.’ As I sat with my mouth agape, “huh, fascinating, wow, really, huh” “Let’s start with an already established Queen for simplification of the life cycle” responded Mike who knew he had my undivided attention.
He proceeded to tell me the following:
The Queen: Her assignment is the only assignment that is hers alone. Her job is to take the eggs that she carries and lay them all. She lays 2000-3000 eggs each day. These eggs are both fertilized and unfertilized. Here’s the cool thing about all those eggs. . . they ALL produce a bee of some importance. The eggs are laid in the BROOD box of the wooden hive. The brood box is full wooden frames each holding a sheet of several small hexagon compartments made of beeswax.
The Larva: This is the worm like stage of the bee. The wiggly worm like stage that grows rapidly into a bigger and bigger within these opened air wax compartment. Once they reach the end of this stage, there are bees that will ‘cap off’ or put a covering over the cell so the Pupa can begin to develop. The bees that do the capping will be coming up as it IS a stage of a bee’s life cycle. The capped cells are now a Capped Brood.
The Pupa: While in the now capped waxed cell, The little larva incubated and develop their full bodies complete with wings. The cells that are capped with flat tops will develop stingers while the slightly larger capped cells have caps that are raised and do not developing without a stinger. This is the stage where their life’s assignment is given. The level capped brood will chew their way out in 21 days time. The bees in the raised capped brood with slightly larger cells will hatch in 24 days. Both will set to fulfilling their life’s assignment the moment they emerge and wings are dry. This is known as the adult stage of the life cycle.
The Adult: The adult sized bees fall into one of two categories: The Worker Bee whose life is complex and extremely important to the inner working and outer workings of the hive. These are all female bees. The other category is called the Drones. There are the unfertilized egg inhabitants. They are born without a stinger, they are lazy and live the life with only one goal in mind. Wait for the time when it’s necessary to have a new queen, so they can mate and die. The worker bee lives only 6 weeks. The Drone can live 3 or 4 months waiting for a new queen. Below Pictures in order: Italian Drone (Male Honey Bee,) Center is Female Italian Honey Bee. Last Picture is of an Italian Queen Bee.
THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE FEMALE HONEY BEE:
Continuing on from her emergence from her capped cell. . . The female honey bee begins the first part of her life’s assignment. She barely has dry wings and she is assuming the roll of being a Nurse lor a House bee. Being born Female, their job is to take care of the queen. They make sure she is fed, groomed the Queen’s complete care. These Nurse or House bee also care for feed and care for the eggs and larva while they are in the egg sells. They do not leave the queen.
At 12 to 35 days old the female bee now becomes a Multitasker/Homemaker doing several jobs within the hive. Her main job is to off load the pollen the older bees bring in and pack them into the cells. She does the same thing with the nectar. These ladies not only take care of everything in the hive, they are also the Architects of the colony who create the Honeycombs. They are responsible for repairing broken honeycombs or if there is a lot of nectar coming in the will build the honeycomb in the super. Architects are no longer confined to the Brood Box. They go where they are needed or see a need. These ladies wear many hats! Cleaners, organizers, Hive Guard and Undertaker, dragging the dead out of the hive.
When a bee is 22 days old and for the rest of their lives they become a Forager and Gatherer leaving the hive to seek pollen and nectar plus sap from trees to make proplus to repair cracks or holes in the hive. A Honey Bee lives only 19-20 more days. During that time she will make over 500 flights out of the security of her hive to bring back all that is need to sustain a strong working colony through the fall and winter months ahead. Sleeping at night to gather strength she faces the uncertainty of the day ahead. Many dangers await her search of means to nourish her hive. A bird’s hunger, a barefoot human, or a water source to big for her to navigate when thirsty. It’s very important to have water available for these ladies to drink from safely. We have chosen to get a full cover for our swimming pool so they use our other available designated safe water spots instead.
Oh my gosh, Mike just brought in a fresh foundation of honey cells. . . the smell is amazing. It doesn’t smell anything like the untouched beeswax we use when making candles. This has a lightly ‘sweet’ powdery smell to it that took me right back to being with my Great Grandmother. Beautiful. That was a writing interruption that was worth it!
I have so much more to write about in this section but I think I am going to call it a day at this point. Part Three of the blog will hold a deeper look into the Queen and her role in sustaining the bee population all over the world. I will also walk you through the break down of a hive and it’s sections. Mike walked my through a hive he made and I snapped pictures as he did so. I was really surprised at how many layers there a hive! Mike will also be sharing more stories as we journey to the end of the series!
Below is a picture of the massive swarm Mike caught on his property before shaking them into his brood box. Again. . . no protection. No fear. Enjoy! 1. Mike and the front of the massive swarm. 2. The backside of the swarm. 3. Some of Mike’s 14 colonies living in the boxes he built from scratch. 4. The backside of the old farmhouse he rented for 14 years to the tune of $150.00 a month!!!
